1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to cellular telephones, and in particular to user features of cellular telephones. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for providing continuous monitoring and displaying of available service plan minutes on cellular telephones.
2. Description of the Related Art
The utilization of cellular telephones (cell phones) is becoming increasingly popular in today's wireless environment. Cellular phone service is provided for both business use and personal use via individual cell phones which connect to particular cellular service providers, such as Sprint and GTE.
The popularity of cellular phones has led to a growing desire for improvements in hardware and software for user satisfaction. The major improvements have included the creation of light-weight phones and inclusion of advanced features, such as web access, call waiting, caller ID, time display, etc. Some of these features are provided as a menu option that may be enabled or disabled, i.e., turned on or off by the user.
Cellular service is usually provided with a monthly or annual payment agreement between the subscriber and the cellular service provider. Typically, each cellular subscriber selects a service plan that includes a set number of daytime or peak minutes and another set number of night and weekend or off-peak minutes in a set period or cycle (usually monthly) for a given price (e.g., 120 minutes peak, 300 off-peak for $29.99). Cell phone users select from among a multitude of rate plans, each offering differing amounts of minutes during differing times of the day or week. Typically, the user selects a rate plan based on cost and associated minutes available within the plan. One major problem faced by users of these rate plans is that often the user goes over the available minutes in the rate plan and ends up having to pay significantly more than desired because of the over calls. With current cellular phones, the user often has no way of knowing the number of minutes remaining in his service plan or when his/her minute usage has reached its peak for the month.
Whenever a subscriber utilizes more minutes in a given cycle than allotted in his/her service plan, the subscriber is charged a premium for the over calls. This premium can be very expensive and often subscribers are forced to pay double the expected rate for a small number of over the rate calls. Because of this, many subscribers are careful in using their minutes and try not to go over the allotted minutes.
Most current cell phones include features to provide the subscriber with a running total of all calls made from the cell phone. The subscriber typically has to reset the minute count at the beginning of the cycle (or period) and then remember to check the amount of minutes used on a periodic basis. Also, some cellular service providers provide a call in number that keeps track of minute usage during the period or provide online information via a customer accessible web site.
The menu items for minute tracking available on most cell phones allow the user to clear timers, view duration of the last call, view duration of all calls made since timers were cleared, and view life timer. However, as stated above, these timers only provide inclusive totals, which is not very informative to the user having a service plan that includes different minute allotments for different times (peak versus off-peak, etc.). Additionally, the present timers require a manual reset by the user and do not allow the user to easily view remaining minutes in his/her service plan.
The present invention recognizes that it would be desirable to provide a user with an accurate count of minute usage delineated by peak, off-peak, and other criteria within a particular service plan. A method and system by which the number of minutes available in a specific cycle is displayed to a user would be a welcomed improvement. These and other benefits are provided by the invention described herein.